Especially with April Fools Day right around the corner, it’s fun to think of different ways to mess with your friends. I remember when I was 8, my mom told me it was snowing outside and that school was cancelled. It was probably the cruelest prank anyone has ever played on me.

But that doesn’t hold a candle to the mindfuckery this couple tried to deploy on their friends.

Micah Risner and Nataleigh Schlette decided that they would fake a brutal murder scene and see how their friends and family would react. The story was that Micah blacked out, and in fury, stabbed girlfriend Nataleigh to death in the bathtub.

This probably won’t end well.

These first messages are texts that Micah sent to his sister Mimi “confessing” the “crime”.

Sandusky Police Department

“Please help me!” Micah tells her.

Sandusky Police Department

She assures him that she will help him cover it all up.

Sandusky Police Department

She even has some super helpful suggestions for him:

Sandusky Police Department

She tells him to throw his bloody clothes in a dumpster “far away” and to delete the FB chat messages they’ve had so far.

Not content to simply see people’s reactions one-by-one, however, the couple also drafted this lengthy Facebook confession. Micah added a surprise at the end, however: none of it was real.

via Facebook

Unfortunately, the crazy text messages led several friends to become “hysterical” and they called the local police to report the crime before realizing the whole thing was for laughs.

The couple’s house was actually stormed by “several” police officers who discovered that the “crime scene” was just a bathtub filled with ketchup.

Their friends seem willing to forgive them for their morbid joke — but the criminal justice system is less forgiving.

via Facebook

Both Micah Risner and Nataleigh Schlette have been charged with inducing panic. They both plead not guilty, and a court date is pending.